Chai bagaan time
Also called: Bagan time, Tea garden time · Topic: Latitude, Longitude and Time · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Chai bagaan time ("tea garden time") is a local time about one hour ahead of IST. Assam's tea gardens have kept it since British times. In the north-east, the sun rises much earlier than IST clocks suggest. Running work an hour ahead lets the gardens use the early daylight. It is often cited in the demand for a separate time zone for the north-east, which Assam's Chief Minister raised in 2014.
Example
In Assam's tea estates, such as those around Dibrugarh, the working day starts by garden time, one hour ahead of IST. Nearby, Dong valley in Arunachal Pradesh sees India's first sunrise, around 4 a.m. in summer.
Don't confuse with
- Daylight saving time: DST moves clocks forward only in summer. Chai bagaan time stays one hour ahead all year.
- IST-II proposal: this is a 2018 proposal by NPL researchers for an official north-east zone at UTC+6:30. Chai bagaan time is an informal local custom.